I got one of those Petco Bookshelf Aquariums using that 50% off coupon last week. I was going to get a 3 gallon Mr. Aqua, but I couldn't turn away the Petco sale I guess... Turns out it's much better looking than I expected when the top/bottom rims are removed! It's not blatantly obvious that it's made of plastic, until you touch it/observe closely. My mom thought it was acrylic until I told her the truth LOL.

Yep, the rims on both top and bottom are removable, so it can be classified as rimless! Which looks pretty nice. Unfortunately, the top rim is still needed if you want to keep the light fixture that came with, since the fixture is a centimeter too short to just sit on top of the rimless tank... I wanted to do a white spray paint job of the top rim and light fixture. I always thought white looks classier than black for aquariums. Black is so overused.

But anyway!
I've always wanted to try my hand at an iwagumi piece... and have always wanted a long aquarium for it. This is going to be the one..! I'm overly excited.

I'm going to pick up some grey rocks around my neighborhood to use. Fortunately, they're the same kind of rock, so they will match. Too bad there's no seiryu or ryou stones just lying around. Where on earth do those random ebay sellers get their pods of seiryu stone anyway?! They can't all be buying from ADA and then reselling for a lower price? LOL

-ahem

I'm not planning on fish- at least not for the first few months as the plants grow in. I'm hoping for a small variety of carpet plants, not just DHG for the entire thing.

Going to try the dry start method, as I heard it works wonders for DHG and dwarf sag.

After half a year hiatus, under half an hour of setup, a wonky light fixture, and an ugly filter, here's the place.

.. with the only dwarf sag that I have to spare LOL. Open to carpet plant donations.... *puts on hobo hat

PHEW though. My first iwagumi, at long last, though there's currently not enough iwas to gumi.... ba dum CHING

I've been trying to keep the last of my DHG alive for the past few months, outside in the half-shade, but they've all but melted. Or they ran away to avoid my newbie aquarium skills. They're probably giggling behind my back right now for my lack of carpet plants.

I love these long mini tanks Never had one but it seems fun to play around with dramatic tiny setups

I'm a newbie at this, but to me it seems the valley is too small compared to the right hill and ends up kind of like a by-product so to speaketh. I also guess that the reason for this is because the layout is too flat. Perhaps widen the valley a bit to the right, and make a higher more dominant hill? :0

Hey there, thanks for the input! Your layout idea makes sense! I think I will raise the second hill higher. It looks like I won't be planting dwarf hairgrass in the front anyway, so the substrate doesn't need to be so deep. Unfortunately, this is the only sand I have left to work with, so I can only sift it around.

As for widening the valley: design is difference. At least when it comes to layout/environment. I'm keeping in mind the 1/3 rule, and was actually considering moving the middle rocks more to the left to make the valley even smaller.

I scavenged some half-dead DHG and emersed-form four leaf clovers from a bucket in my backyard... I threw the stuff outside half a year ago when I revamped my 55g, and I've totally forgotten about it until now. I hope they can revive in this 6.6g, but I'm completely unsure if I have appropriate lighting.... and my lack of root tabs probably doesn't help either.

When the clovers convert to their submersed form, they'll be much shorter than they are now... Hopefully that will even happen one day, and it won't just all melt. :\

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